Maurice Odumbe took Kenya into the Super Sixes of the World Cup on Saturday with an all-round destruction of Bangladesh — and then turned his fire on the rulers of the world game.
”I hope the bigwigs of the International Cricket Council (ICC) here in South Africa are watching and listening — we need your help to keep Kenyan cricket alive.
”We need your support and the win today shows that the Kenyan team has come along in leaps and bounds.”
The 33-year-old, who had been captain when Kenya played at the 1996 World Cup, smashed 52 in a total of 217-7 at the Wanderers and then took 4-38 with his off-spinners to rip the heart out of the Bangladesh batting line-up as they crashed to 185 all out.
Their 32-run defeat was Bangladesh’s 29th in the last 31 limited overs internationals — the other two were rained-off — and the loss here meant they finished the World Cup with five defeats in six games with just the rain in Benoni against the West Indies saving them from another defeat.
Odumbe’s anger at the ICC was echoed by skipper Steve Tikolo whose three late wickets sealed the win for his side. ”The ICC should take notice,” said Tikolo.
”Our performances here have shown that we are worth more international matches and they will definitely be a boost for Kenyan cricket — as you can see from our shirts, we don’t even have a sponsor.”
Kenya hope their successes here will lead to full Test match recognition and coach Sandeep Patil insisted his team was ready to step into the big time.
Kenya, who upset the West Indies in the 1996 edition of cricket’s showpiece, stunned Sri Lanka by 53 runs at home in Nairobi on Monday to throw open the race for the Super Sixes from Group B.
Patil said the victory indicated his team was maturing to join the big league as the 11th Test-playing nation. ”I think we are getting there,” Patil said. ”To tell you the
truth, if Bangladesh can play Test cricket, there is no reason why we can’t.
”I think we are as good as them, if not better. Our time will come.”
Bangladesh, who were granted Test status in 2000, have been clearly out of their depth in the big league and many critics have questioned their elevation. The tiny South Asian nation has lost 16 of the 17 Tests it has played, 11 of them by an innings — the only escape was at home when rain denied Zimbabwe certain victory.
The International Cricket Council (ICC), which is considering Kenya’s application for Test status, does not want them to go Bangladesh’s way. ”The experience of Bangladesh has shown that we need to be very careful before admitting teams to Test status because it is totally different game,” ICC’s development manager Andrew Eade told BBC Online.
”When Bangladesh were admitted, all the indicators were there that they would quickly come up to speed. ”But we threw them in there a little bit early and it showed
there is a big difference between Test and one-day cricket.” – Sapa